Multiple services operators (MSOs) are now capable of providing many services in addition to broadcast audio/video signals over their existing systems. Some advanced services in a broadband communications system along provide conventional cable television signals along with other telephony services, such as high-speed data and telephone. To support these additional services, cable modems and media terminal adapters are used in the subscriber's premises and have typically been coupled with coaxial cable to a communications network. U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,011 to Loveless, the disclosure and teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference, shows an example of a hybrid fiber/coaxial (HFC) communications network that could be used to implement the present invention.
When customers switch from a traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) to an MSO, it may take weeks to transfer updates regarding the routing information. In this manner, when a telephone having caller identification information is first installed, it is difficult to determine whether or not the caller identification function is working properly or not. Conventionally, during installation, a service technician would call a customer service representative (CSR) at the MSO from each installed telephone, and then they would manually run through a caller identification function verification. The CSR would call the installed telephone number for each caller identification telephone in order for the technician to verify that each caller identification telephone was receiving the information on the display. This process obviously takes time along with a CSR's time in order to verify the function is working properly.
Thus, there exists a need for a more efficient system and method of determining the status of the caller identification function.